WWE Main Event was back for another episode this week. Four matches were advertised, featuring a former Intercontinental Champ taking on the current Evolve Champ. Check out the preview Cageside user GM05 posted in the Feed yesterday, find the full episode at the link below, or scroll down a little further to just read what went down on the show!
In the words of Linkin Park, what the hell are you waiting for?
Sol Ruca snatches Big Kat Kita’s soul
This week’s show kicked off with reigning Women’s Evolve Champion Nikkita Lyons taking on former
Intercontinental Champion, Sol Ruca. Nikkita was appearing on Main Event for the first time since losing to Maxxine Dupri back in May. Sol, meanwhile, was carrying a 5-1 lifetime record on the show, with her only loss coming to Alba Fyre over two years ago, and her most recent win over Candice LeRae three weeks ago.
Nikkita got the match going before the bell by nailing Sol with a cheap shot, drawing the crowd’s ire almost immediately. Lyons used her size and strength advantage to control the match early, but Sol swung the momentum back in her favor with a series of body blows and a snap German suplex out of the corner. Lyons looked to overpower Sol again, but Ruca evaded a running shoulder attack in the corner, sending Nikkita face-first into the turnbuckle. After an awkward exchange that saw Sol land a knee to Nikkita’s dome, Ruca ran into the corner and hit a Sol Snatcher to pick up the win.
Reaction: Maybe absence makes the heart grow fonder, but Sol’s strikes seemed to look a lot crisper and cleaner than they’ve been in the past. The Sol Snatcher is still one of the coolest moves in wrestling, but Nikkita oversold it here, basically laying out flat in the corner as Sol flipped off of the ropes. Blake Howard asked Vic at one point if Nikkita has surpassed Kendal and Kali as the best Evolve Women’s Champion ever, neglecting to mention that Lyons was on NXT for a substantial stretch before being basically demoted to Evolve. Kendal and Kali are going in the other direction, and quickly.
Otis survives a hoss fight with Ivar
War Raider Ivar was scheduled for a one-on-one match against Otis this week, in a battle that Big E would love. Otis has wrestled on Main Event over 40 times since debuting in WWE over 7 years ago, but he came up short in his most recent outing against Austin Theory. Ivar has appeared on Main Event his fair share too, and also lost his last match on the show, falling to Damian Priest just last month.
Akira Tozawa accompanied his Alpha Academy brother to the ring tonight, but Ivar was flying solo. Akira probably wished he had stayed in the back, because Ivar laid him out with a massive big boot while he cheered Otis on from the arena floor. The two hosses really laid into each other throughout a physical match. Ivar inflicted more damage for most of the match, but Otis started hulking up by wiggling and jiggling. A big clothesline and a big back elbow had Otis feeling pretty good, but Ivar moved out of the way as Otis charged at him in the corner.
As Ivar climbed the rope, potentially going for his big moonsault, Akira stepped up on the ring steps and distracted the War Raider by tearing his shirt off. Otis regrouped, smashed Ivar in the corner, hit a Caterpillar, and then delivered a World’s Strongest Slam to pick up the victory.
Reaction: This match was just a reminder that WWE does have some potential depth that they just aren’t tapping into in their tag team divisions. Otis and Tozawa had a brief story with The Vision over the summer but have been mostly relegated to Main Event since. The War Raiders had a run with the AAA Tag Titles and got a lot of TV time on SmackDown over the summer too, but haven’t gotten much since losing those titles to the Wagner Brothers almost two months ago. Wrestling frequently on Main Event is something, I guess, but those rumors about tag team wrestling getting more of a spotlight haven’t quite come to fruition.
Bird Lady gets dropped in Vice City
Things haven’t quite been going Lyra Valkyria’s way in recent months. The Bird Lady hadn’t won a match since September, when she knocked off Bayley, but she’s just a few weeks removed from losing the return match, a No-DQ affair on a recent episode of Raw. Her opponent tonight was Lola Vice, who has been looking to pick up a signature win since debuting on the red brand almost two months ago. These two ladies met on Raw last month, with Lola picking up the win.
As she’d been doing since she started losing her marbles, Lyra focused most of her offense on methodically picking Lola apart with a series of mat-based attacks and submission moves. Lola found little bits of daylight on several occasions, but Lyra was always there to cut her off at the pass when Vice tried to follow up. When Lola was finally able to string some offense together, she hit her jumping kick sequence and welcomed Valkyria to Vice City with a running hip attack in the corner. Lyra went back to the ground and pound and narrowly planted Lola with a sit-out powerbomb, but only picked up a two count.
Lyra got a little cocky, mocking Lola’s hip shaking, which allowed Vice to regroup and get back into it. Lola reversed a Night Wing into a crucifix, Lyra kicked at two and then ducked a roundhouse kick on the rebound, but Vice stayed with it and hit her spinning back fist to pick up the win.
Reaction: Not too surprising to see Lola pick up a win here after competing in Money in the Bank last month. I really wanna give props to Lyra, though. As much as I’d like to see her embrace the new gimmick even more by looking more unkempt with her hair, gear, and makeup, she’s really adapted her in-ring style and her mannerisms since turning heel. So often we see people change alignments and keep everything else about their presentation the same. But not Lyra.
We hear from Axiom and Raquel Rodriguez
Prior to the main event of Main Event, we saw what happened on SmackDown when Damian Priest went on a rampage, laying both members of Fraxiom out at ringside. We then cut to Byron Saxton, who was standing by to speak with Axiom. After giving an injury update on his tag team partner, Nathan Frazer, Axiom had some words for Priest, saying he has no idea what it means to be a friend and calling the former World Champion a bully and a coward.
Then, from Raw, we saw Iyo Sky pin Raquel Rodriguez in their tag team match, and Adam Pearce informing Judgment Day that Big Mami Cool will defend her Intercontinental Championship against the Genius of the Sky this upcoming Monday. Jackie Redmond was on the scene to get Raquel’s reaction. Rodriguez wondered why Iyo keeps getting opportunities that she doesn’t deserve when she’s irrelevant, but she’s excited for the chance to put Iyo in her place.
Dom and JD outshine the LWO
In the night’s Main Event, the remnants of the Latino World Order, Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde, faced Judgment Day in tag team action. It was the LWO’s first Main Event showing since their three straight weeks of appearances in September. As for Dom and JD, they were teaming up on Main Event for just the second time after losing to Los Americanos three weeks ago.
When the bell rang, Wilde and Del Toro brought their brand of energy, and the Judgment Day did Judgment Day things. The crowd in the arena was pretty lukewarm on the LWO for most of the match, but had no problem showing Dom love anytime he did anything. JD and Dom worked Joaquin Wilde over, but the former Zema Ion managed to break through for a hot tag to Cruz Del Toro, swinging some momentum in their favor. After tope suicidas in stereo and some tandem offense, Dom raked Cruz’s eyes and shoved him into his own partner. After a 619 and a frog splash, Dom pinned Cruz to take the win back to the clubhouse.
Reaction: A fun match between these four, with the right team taking the win. This showing was more evidence that JD McDonagh is one of the more underrated wrestlers in the entire company. Nothing is necessarily wrong with Judgment Day being featured here, but it feels like we’re back to the status quo after a few weeks of tension teasing a breakup over the summer. I like the 5 people in the group individually, but I can’t help feeling like they need to shake things up soon.
Final Thoughts
All in all, a solid night of action, though there really wasn’t any storyline development. I still think Main Event needs to add a bit more of that to make this a show more people want to watch. Give us an occasional title match (like they did last week) or a post-match brawl of some kind to make it feel like an extension or continuation of Raw and SmackDown, rather than something completely separate. I will say Blake Howard and Vic Joseph do a pretty commendable job of tying the whole timeline together on commentary. I’ve heard them reference Raw, SmackDown, NXT, and AAA storylines during these Main Event broadcasts, and I appreciate how well they seem to know the product.
